LeCo - Learn & Conquer

LeCo - Learn & Conquer is a multimedia language learning tool which lets the user to explore the surroundings while solving the levels. To achieve the goal, the user needs to communicate with the foreign language and thus strenghten his/her skills. LeCo won the category of Online & Digital Video/TV in Europrix. There are three minds behind the service: Krister Hymon (the overall mastermind), Simon Kufner (the brains behind the programming) and Hyun-Suk Cho (the expert in charge of the visualisation).

I met the guys by lunch in one of the pleasant local pizzeria-pubs and bombarded them with a bunch of questions.

Krister was amused that I was from Tampere, because he said the whole idea for the project came to his mind while doing his work exchange there. He was engaging himself in something similar and came up with LeCo. He decided to pursue it further, since there was nothing similar yet and it felt a fun way to learn new languages. Since he knew Simon and Hyun-Suk, he asked them to help him - and they got stuck.

Asking about LeCo’s biggest asset, all the guys agree that it’s innovative. It’s also flexible and fresh, the idea is to enlargen the user interactivity with the level editor - then all the users can create their own version of their hometowns. The good part is that because of the editors the user doesn’t need to know much programming. It is like Open Source 2.0 in smaller environment. The only really tricky part is the demand of some video editing skills and hardware that the users need for creating new levels. The guys also don’t have clear marketing plan as yet.

When I asked about their relationships inside the group, I was rather surprised to hear that Europrix was the first time they ever met physically all together. Even if Krister and Simon have been in close contact during the development, Hyun-Suk lives elsewhere and they didn’t have any meetings while the process was going on. That naturally created some challenges, but Skype was useful tool for online meetings.

LeCo runs through Krister’s own homesite and that makes one easily to think he’s most involved with the whole shebang. That is not so. Simon and Hyun-Suk are also heavily involved and then there are other people (also in Tampere) who translate, help, shoot videos, etc. LeCo is much bigger than you might think...

Some of the most interesting aspects regarding LeCo have to do with its future. The original idea was the language learning game, but there’re quite a lot more possibilities for it. How about tourist aid? Sightseeing tours? Geocaching? Third life (compared to Second Life)?... If the editor is open for all and if there will be few people who really take it into their hearts, the future of LeCo can be something bigger than we can yet even think. When I asked where the guys would like to see LeCo in 5 years time, Krister modestly said “I want it to be the most popular website in the world”. So, be afraid, Facebook, here come the Germans.

Here's the link to the website: LeCo - Learn & Conquer